{"id":25035228,"date":"2026-09-27T10:29:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T08:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kurt-wintgens-first-synchronised-machine-gun-victory-fokker-eindecker-1915\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T10:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T08:30:09","slug":"kurt-wintgens-first-synchronised-machine-gun-victory-fokker-eindecker-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kurt-wintgens-first-synchronised-machine-gun-victory-fokker-eindecker-1915\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Wintgens: The First Kill With a Synchronised Machine Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>On 1 July 1915, near Lun&eacute;ville in eastern France, a young German lieutenant in a small monoplane closed on a French Morane-Saulnier parasol and did something no fighter pilot had yet done successfully in combat. He aimed his whole aircraft at the enemy and fired a machine gun straight through the arc of his own spinning propeller.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>His name was Kurt Wintgens. That first attack was never confirmed, because the French aircraft came down on its own side of the lines. But two weeks later, on 15 July 1915, Wintgens scored again, and this time the victory was confirmed: the first official kill by a fighter with a synchronised machine gun. It opened the period the Allies would come to call the Fokker Scourge.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f5f7;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:8px 0 28px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.7\"><li><strong>Name:<\/strong> Leutnant Kurt Wintgens<\/li><li><strong>Born:<\/strong> 1 August 1894, Neustadt in Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia)<\/li><li><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Fokker M.5K\/MG Eindecker, serial E.5\/15<\/li><li><strong>First combat:<\/strong> 1 July 1915, against a Morane-Saulnier L flown by Capitaine Paul du Peuty (unconfirmed)<\/li><li><strong>First confirmed victory:<\/strong> 15 July 1915, a Morane Parasol, the first confirmed kill with a synchronised gun<\/li><li><strong>Pour le M&eacute;rite:<\/strong> 1 July 1916, the fourth airman to receive the Blue Max<\/li><li><strong>Victories:<\/strong> At least 19 confirmed, up to 22 with probables and force-downs<\/li><li><strong>Died:<\/strong> 25 September 1916, near Villers-Carbonnel, aged 22<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Shooting Through the Propeller<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>In 1915 the problem every aviator faced was simple to describe and hard to solve. The easiest way to aim a machine gun from a single-seat tractor aeroplane is to point the aircraft at the target. But the propeller is in the way. Frenchman Roland Garros tried a brute-force answer: steel wedges on his propeller blades that deflected any bullets that struck them. He scored three victories before he was forced down behind German lines on 18 April 1915, and his aircraft was captured.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Fokker company went further. Its <em>Stangensteuerung<\/em>, a push-rod system driven by cams on the engine, timed the gun to fire only when no blade was in front of the muzzle. Fitted to Anthony Fokker&#39;s small M.5K monoplane, it created the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/fokker-eindecker\/\">Fokker Eindecker<\/a>, often described as the first true fighter aircraft.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/anthony-fokker-and-kurt-wintgens.jpg\" alt=\"Anthony Fokker and Leutnant Kurt Wintgens\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Aircraft designer Anthony Fokker (left) with Leutnant Kurt Wintgens, one of the first pilots to take his synchronised-gun Eindecker into combat. Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Pilot Who Asked for the Job<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Wintgens had served on the Eastern Front with a telegraph battalion and won the Iron Cross, Second Class, before training as a pilot at the Fokker school in Schwerin in early 1915. When the new armed Fokker appeared, he asked for it by name.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;to fly in the field the smallest and fastest Fokker type with the Garros-installation&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Kurt Wintgens<\/strong> &mdash; his request to take the armed Fokker to the front, 1915, as recorded on Wikipedia<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>He was posted to Feldflieger-Abteilung 6b near Saarburg as one of the very first Eindecker pilots, flying the aircraft with the serial E.5\/15. On 1 July 1915 he attacked the Morane-Saulnier L of Capitaine Paul du Peuty, who landed on the French side. On 4 July he forced down another Parasol, again without confirmation. On 15 July he shot down a third, and this one counted. He received the Iron Cross, First Class.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 6px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DRgMa9P1FQ0\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">The documentary series Four Years of Thunder on the first air war and the Fokker Scourge. Video: History With Troy<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Fokker Scourge<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Wintgens was soon joined by the pilots who would become far more famous. Max Immelmann&#39;s first confirmed victory came on 1 August 1915, a date often given as the official start of the Fokker Scourge, and Oswald Boelcke was flying the new Fokkers too. The monoplanes were not fast or especially agile, but a pilot who could aim his gun by aiming his aircraft had an enormous advantage over opponents who could not.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Between June 1915 and January 1916 the Royal Flying Corps lost 120 aircraft. In Britain the losses became a political scandal. Noel Pemberton Billing, a Member of Parliament and former naval airman, attacked the Royal Aircraft Factory in the House of Commons for sending pilots to war in inferior aircraft.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;hundreds, nay thousands of machines have been ordered which have been referred to by our pilots as &#39;Fokker Fodder&#39;&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Noel Pemberton Billing<\/strong> &mdash; Member of Parliament, speaking in the House of Commons, 1916<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The advantage did not last. The British Airco DH.2 arrived early in 1916 and the French Nieuport 11 in the spring, and by the late summer of 1916 the last Eindeckers had left front-line service.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/kurt-wintgens-portrait-fliegerass.jpg\" alt=\"Leutnant Kurt Wintgens wearing the Pour le Merite\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A signed postcard portrait of Kurt Wintgens wearing the Pour le M&eacute;rite. Wikimedia Commons, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Blue Max, and the End<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Wintgens kept scoring through 1916. On 24 June 1916 his seventh confirmed victim was Victor Chapman of the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/lafayette-escadrille-american-volunteers-france-wwi\/\">Lafayette Escadrille<\/a>, the American volunteer squadron. On 1 July 1916, exactly a year after that first unconfirmed attack, he received the Pour le M&eacute;rite, the fourth airman to be given the Blue Max.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>He did not survive the autumn. On 25 September 1916, near Villers-Carbonnel on the Somme, his aircraft broke up in combat, most likely shot down by the French ace Alfred Heurtaux in an early SPAD S.VII. Wintgens was 22. He was credited with at least 19 confirmed victories, and up to 22 counting probables and force-downs. Fame went to Immelmann, Boelcke and later Richthofen, but the first confirmed kill of the fighter age was his.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 6px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zvuyngt76ao\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">A flying Fokker E.III replica at an airshow in 2023, showing how small and fragile the Eindecker was. Video: Pterodactyl Flight<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Watch the replicas today and the Eindecker looks almost toy-like: a wire-braced monoplane with a rotary engine and one gun. In 1915 it was the most dangerous thing in the sky, and a 20-year-old lieutenant who had asked for it by name was the first to prove it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 6px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZiWx1oYpSpA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin:0 0 24px;font-style:italic\">The view from the cockpit of a Fokker E.III replica built by Airdrome Aeroplanes. Video: Ross Brodie<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Kurt Wintgens, Fokker Scourge), Vintage Aviation News<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who was Kurt Wintgens?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Kurt Wintgens was a German World War I fighter pilot, born in 1894, who flew one of the first Fokker Eindecker monoplanes armed with a synchronised machine gun. On 15 July 1915 he scored the first confirmed aerial victory with such a gun. He received the Pour le Merite and was killed in September 1916.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the first victory with a synchronised machine gun?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The first confirmed victory with a synchronised machine gun was scored by Kurt Wintgens on 15 July 1915, when he shot down a French Morane-Saulnier Parasol in his Fokker M.5K\/MG Eindecker. His earlier attack on 1 July 1915 was not confirmed because the French aircraft landed on its own side.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the Fokker Scourge?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Fokker Scourge was the period from mid-1915 into early 1916 when German Fokker Eindecker monoplanes, armed with machine guns synchronised to fire through the propeller, inflicted heavy losses on Allied aircraft. It ended when the Airco DH.2 and Nieuport 11 reached the front in 1916.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did a synchronised machine gun work in World War I?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">A synchronised machine gun, or interrupter gear, used a mechanism linked to the engine to time each shot so it passed between the propeller blades. Fokker&amp;#39;s Stangensteuerung used engine-driven cams and push rods, letting the pilot aim by pointing the whole aircraft at the target.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many victories did Kurt Wintgens score?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Kurt Wintgens was credited with at least 19 confirmed aerial victories, and up to 22 when probables and aircraft forced down are included. He received the Pour le Merite on 1 July 1916, becoming only the fourth airman awarded the Blue Max.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did Kurt Wintgens die?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Kurt Wintgens was killed in action on 25 September 1916 near Villers-Carbonnel on the Somme, aged 22. His aircraft broke up in combat, most likely after an attack by the French ace Alfred Heurtaux flying an early SPAD S.VII.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who was Kurt Wintgens?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Kurt Wintgens was a German World War I fighter pilot, born in 1894, who flew one of the first Fokker Eindecker monoplanes armed with a synchronised machine gun. On 15 July 1915 he scored the first confirmed aerial victory with such a gun. 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His aircraft broke up in combat, most likely after an attack by the French ace Alfred Heurtaux flying an early SPAD S.VII.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/max-immelmann-the-eagle-of-lille-and-the-turn-that-bears-his-name\/\">Max Immelmann: The Eagle of Lille and the Turn That Bears His Name<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/oswald-boelcke-the-man-who-wrote-the-rules-of-aerial-combat\/\">Oswald Boelcke: The Man Who Wrote the Rules of Aerial Combat<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/roland-garros-aviator-first-fighter-pilot\/\">Roland Garros Never Played the French Open<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In July 1915 Kurt Wintgens fired through his own propeller and scored the first confirmed kill with a synchronised gun, starting the Fokker Scourge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":25034516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25035228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kurt Wintgens: First Kill With a Synchronised Gun | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kurt Wintgens scored the first confirmed victory with a synchronised machine gun on 15 July 1915 in his Fokker Eindecker, opening the Fokker Scourge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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